Kliefoth laid down his conception of the Church and church polity in his
Acht Bücher von der Kirche (vol. i., Schwerin, 1854). The first four books treat of the kingdom of God founding of the Church, of the means of grace, of the congregation and its service, and of the Church and its order and government. The last four books, which were to treat of the development and completion of the Church never appeared. Kliefoth's peculiar conception was due chiefly to his occupation with the old Lutheran church orders. With great energy he emphasizes the divine foundation of the Church through the acts of salvation of the
triune God; its divine basis in the
Means of Grace, which mediate and vouchsafe the continuous effect of Christ and his spirit; the divine institution of the office of the means of grace; and the necessity of the organization and incorporation of the Church in church order and church government. The Church is for him the empirical congregation of the called, and not merely the congregation of true believers; and for him
Lutheranism is not merely a doctrine or dogmatical tendency, but a distinctive church body whose peculiar historical development is to be perpetuated. He opposed the territorialism of state omnipotence, which denied the independence of the Church, the collegialism of modern representative church government, which originated in the
Reformed Church and seemed to him to endanger the privilege and authority of the office of the means of grace; unionism, which threatened to absorb the Lutheran Church as such, or at least its
confession; and the amalgamation of Church and politics, with its tendency toward the establishment of a national
German Evangelical Church. On the other hand, he aimed at the restoration of the Lutheran state churches and the strengthening of Lutheranism through a closer union. In this sense he represented the government of the Mecklenburg church at the
Eisenach Conference after 1852; and in 1868 he founded with others the
Allgemeine evangelisch-lutherische Konferenz. Kliefoth was one of the strongest men among the churchmen and theologians of his day, and one of the most effective preachers of the nineteenth century. The political and ecclesiastical liberals decried him as a dangerous reactionist, the
unionists hated his strict Lutheranism, the representatives of
pietistic
subjectivism were offended by his ecclesiasticism, and popular sentiment disliked his hierarchical tendencies. He was also the most notable authority of his time on liturgies and the old Lutheran church orders. His
Liturgische Abhandlungen (8 vols., Schwerin, 1854–61, 2d. ed., 1858–69) is his most prominent work, the most peculiar expression of his spirit. Other important works are:
Einleitung in die Dogmengeschichte (Ludwigslust, 1839);
Theorie des Kultus der evangelischen Kirche (1844);
Ueber Predigt und Katechese in der Vergangenheit und in der Gegenwart (in
Mecklenburgisches Kirchenblatt, ii.1-55, 169-245, Rostock, 1846);
Die ursprüngliche Gottesdienst-ordnung in den deutschen Kirchen lutherischen Bekenntnisses (Rostock, 1847);
Das Verhältnis der Landesherren als Inhaber der Kirchengewalt zu ihren Kirchenbehörden (Schwerin, 1861);
Der preussische Staat und die Kirchen (1873); and
Christliche Eschatologie (Leipzig, 1886). He also wrote commentaries on
Zechariah (Schwerin, 1859),
Ezekiel (2 parts, Rostock, 1864–65),
Daniel (Schwerin, 1868), and
Revelation (Leipsic, 1874). With Prof.
O. Mejer of Rostock he edited the
Kirchliche Zeitschrift (Schwerin, 1854–59), which, with
A. W. Dieckhoff, he continued as
Theologische Zeitschrift (1860–64). He published several collections of sermons, and a great number of single and occasional sermons. ==References==